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I. A WREATH of light-blue vapor, pure and rare, | |
| Mounts, scarcely seen against the bluer sky, | |
| In quiet adoration, silently, | |
| Till the faint currents of the upper air | |
| Dislimn it, and it forms, dissolving there, | 5 |
| The dome, as of a palace, hung on high | |
| Over the mountain; underneath it lie | |
| Vineyards and bays and cities, white and fair. | |
| Might we not think this beauty would engage | |
| All living things unto one pure delight? | 10 |
| O, vain belief! for here, our records tell, | |
| Rome’s understanding tyrant from men’s sight | |
| Hid, as within a guilty citadel, | |
| The shame of his dishonorable age. | |
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II. AS when unto a mother, having chid | 15 |
| Her child in anger, there have straight ensued | |
| Repentings for her quick and angry mood, | |
| Till she would fain see all its traces hid | |
| Quite out of sight,—even so has Nature bid | |
| Fair flowers, that on the scarred earth she has strewed, | 20 |
| To blossom, and called up the taller wood | |
| To cover what she ruined and undid. | |
| O, and her mood of anger did not last | |
| More than an instant, but her work of peace, | |
| Restoring and repairing, comforting | 25 |
| The Earth, her stricken child, will never cease: | |
| For that was her strange work, and quickly past; | |
| To this her genial toil no end the years shall bring. | |
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III. THAT her destroying fury was with noise | |
| And sudden uproar; but far otherwise, | 30 |
| With silent and with secret ministries, | |
| Her skill of renovation she employs: | |
| For Nature, only loud when she destroys, | |
| Is silent when she fashions; she will crowd | |
| The work of her destruction, transient, loud, | 35 |
| Into an hour, and then long peace enjoys. | |
| Yea, every power that fashions and upholds | |
| Works silently,—all things, whose life is sure, | |
| Their life is calm; silent the light that moulds | |
| And colors all things; and without debate | 40 |
| The stars, which are forever to endure, | |
| Assume their thrones and their unquestioned state. | |
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